What is Chinese New Year?

Also known as Lunar New Year or the Spring Festival, Chinese New Year is undoubtedly the most important event in the Chinese calendar. Starting from weeks prior to the start of Chinese New Year, streets all around the world will be lined with beautifully-designed lanterns. Above it all, the excited chatter and laughter of people meeting up, exchanging of mandarin oranges for good luck and feasting on special dishes, is an experience unmatched by any other functions in the East Asian Culture. The year the Chinese New Year is celebrated on the 16 and 17th Feb 2018.

The New Year festival is centuries old and gains significance because of several myths and customs. Traditionally, the festival was a time to honor deities as well as ancestors. Lunar New Year is celebrated in other Asian countries and territories, including Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Mauritius, Australia, and the Philippines. Lunar New Year is considered a major holiday for the Chinese and has had influence on the lunar new year celebrations of its geographic neighbours.

Within China, regional customs and traditions concerning the celebration of the Lunar New Year vary widely. Often, the evening preceding Lunar New Year’s Day is an occasion for Chinese families to gather for the annual reunion dinner. It is also traditional for every family to thoroughly clean the house, to sweep away any ill-fortune and to make way for incoming good luck. Windows and doors are decorated with red color paper-cuts and couplets with popular themes of “good fortune” or “happiness”, “wealth”, and “longevity”. Other activities include lighting firecrackers and giving money in red paper envelopes. In about one third of the Mainland population, or 500 million Northerners, dumplings (especially those of vegetarian fillings) feature prominently in the meals celebrating the festival. It is one of the world’s most prominent and celebrated festivals, with the “largest annual mass human migration in the world”.

Chinese New Year always holds a dear place in any East Asian’s heart and Dundee does not hold back when it comes to CNY celebrations! There are a whole lot of activates planned for this celebration and make sure to be a part of this extravaganza! Please click the links below to check where you can go to celebrate this event!